Shadow and The Eighth Element
by victoriarogue
Summary: A taxicab driver and former major in GUN has to help save humanity with the help of a noisy DJ, a kid pilot, his ex-wife, his employment counselor, a priest and his apprentice, and a resurrected protector of Earth from a greedy scientist running the Thanatos project. Will he be able to save his world in time before the Great Evil returns to terrorize mankind?
1. Chapter 1

So, here we are, victoriarogue with a special surprise for you reader. Yes, I'm making another fiction that I thought would be interesting to do. You would think I'd stop finding new ideas and stick to some of my original stories, but I couldn't help with this one this time. All the other times I could help, but it didn't work out for me this time.

I'm going to try my luck with the Sonic the Hedgehog series again and produce this new work. This is my first yaoi project that I somehow couldn't resist trying. I never wrote a yaoi or a full lemon before, so, if anything sounds weird here, uh... yeah, stop reading. I'm sure there's no reason to put a disclaimer anywhere because if I owned anything I would be taking bubble baths with chocolate bars on the side and rose petals on my feet. Unfortunately, I did NOT come up with any cool sci-fi movies YET. Try not to puke at my crappy interpretation of a really good Bruce Willis film and another good sci-fi movie that I won't mention for obvious reasons; I tried my very best.

* * *

It was a warm, humid summer in the tropics of Maysis Isle of the year 1920. Mosquitoes were actively swarming around bushes that attracted them with smells of a saline nectar. Exotic trees and plants were growing obnoxiously this year. The sun could hardly shine its light on the moss floor. Stones with little lizards resting on them were happy to receive some of the strong morning star's gleams, and the lizards were equally happy to be warmed to the waking hour. Children would normally find it in themselves to test a lizard's body temperature with ice cold water. The lizards can see in their smiling faces the curiosity spurring from the American myths told by the Americans who entered their world. They cannot speak their disapproval of having cold water poured onto them, but they can certainly hear the children questioning the skills of American lizard catchers. Barbarians is what the lizard thinks of American lizard catchers.

Flies were zipping by through the tall grass either finding rotting mutton lying about or becoming morning breakfast for a jumping spider. The sun was high and burning whatever its rays could possibly touch. It was so hot the turtles swimming in a canal nearby would not sit on a protruding stone to warm its blood. At least the lizards hid in the shade this time to escape lizard catchers, the turtles would say amongst themselves. Turtles could not escape the feeling of becoming soup. They would either boil in a pot or boil in the canal. All the creatures of this tropical forest hushed as they heard laughter and footsteps gradually become louder as the noises grew closer. They could feel the ground vibrate excitedly like the few children coming to visit the "unfortunate one" as the turtles, lizards, and other children liked to call her.

Some camels moaned as they turned their long necks towards the visiting children. Too early to play games now, the camels complained as they shook their heads to swat away the pesky flies. The two children were quite different from each other: one girl was a bit taller and had very pretty pink hair tusseled about and blue eyes; the other was a yellow mongoose with purple hair and green eyes. The girls giggled as they came closer to the temple where the American explorers and their friend were working on discovering the ancient artifacts hidden in the temple's ruins. The pink-haired tyke took the mongoose's hand and ran up the old steps until they came to the entryway where an old explorer was still brushing out the dust that gathered in the fabled writings of Maysis Isle. They hardly cared for him, but they did admire the younger assistant who just so happened to be an artist as well. He was also a tad bit cuter.

The pink-haired girl found another girl sleeping next to a large purple cat and frog. The girl crept as close as she could to a small wall and called, "Tikal! Tikal!"

Tikal was a pink-furred animal like the golden-furred mongoose. She, however, was an echidna and young daughter of the Master Emerald guardian. By birth, she was the next to guard the ancient gem of power, but for now she was supposed to provide assistance to the American explorers rather than sleeping. Tikal began to slip along the borders of her gold mirror. The sun's light was slowly fading as Tikal slipped more, and the lack of light soon angered the seasoned explorer.

He sighed in aggravation, turned to the small girl, and shouted, "Tikal, LIGHT!"

The young artist sighed in aggravation also, but he instead mumbled in whispers, "Tikal, light." He then proceeded to mark down the twenty-eighth time his senior had to call the poor child. It was bad enough she had to stay with them through the wee hours; now, she had to provide light sources for them just to learn the ancient scribbling and artwork of her people. He whispered again, "Tikal, light."

The old explorer commented once he saw Tikal shoot up in fear and wakefulness, "Good." He turned back to the ancient carvings on the walls and narrowed his gaze at the writings. He found where he left off and continued his translating once more that day. He said, "We begin again. When the three planets are in eclipse, a black hole like a door is open and evil comes spreading terror and chaos. See the snake, Christopher? It is the ultimate evil. Make sure you get the snake."

Christopher sighed then said, "Yes, I got your snakes. I got all your snakes. So, when is this _snake_ act supposed to occur?"

"Oh, well," the old man started, raising his hand to pick out numbers based on the pictures. He continued, "If this is the five and this is the one..." He closed his eyes and counted in his head then resulted, "Every 5,000 years."

Christopher looked at the man's back incredulously then nodded before saying, "So I've...got some time then."

Without further words, the old man continued to translate the ancient writings. The little girl and the mongoose were hardly interested in the men's research, but they were concerned for Tikal. She was falling asleep again. Unbeknownst to the girls, however, a cloaked presence was watching them. He crept close behind them, listening to the American explorers as well.

He was supposed to help protect the temple's secrets just as he promised to Tikal's father, guardian of the divine and ancient power, but he only knew yesterday that the Americans have discovered the path to the oasis and soon the temple. Now, he had to stop them from telling the public the secrets to their safety. Not even the church the cloaked presence served could know of this temple; otherwise, his own faith would be questioned and he may be exiled from the church. All the people he knew, loved, and respected would turn against him. This adventure had to stop.

With silent steps, the presence grabbed the pink-haired girl's shoulder and turned her sharply in a desperate grip. She gasped in fright just as the mongoose did before seeing the familiar, scaly face of the river clergyman and calming down. The clergyman said, "Retrieve some water, good girls. I will take it to them. Go with God, be safe from evil."

The girls scuttled off quickly to retrieve water and left the man there. He watched them go for a second before turning to the explorers once again.

"You see, here these different peoples, or symbols of people, are gathering together. Then, these seven elements, power sources, or what have you arrive: love, generosity, ambition, humility, chastity, kindness, mercifulness surround an eighth one... an eighth... element..."

The clergyman has heard enough now. These men that threaten to ruin his life and the lives of the planet know far too much. Should this information go public, all is lost! Opening his cloak, the clergyman takes out a vile filled with poison and then a canteen of water. He looks into the vile and feels his heart grow heavy with the burden of knowing he will spill the blood of another for the sake of mankind. A deed most worthy yet most cruel.

He whispers to himself, "Forgive me Lord, but they have already told too much."

He pours the poison into the water canteen and loudly drops the vile to alert the explorers. The men turn to the noise and watch the clergyman remove the hood of his cloak from his hairless, bright green head. The clergymen smiles brightly as he enters the main hall and entrance to the deity's chamber and bows in respect to the gentlemen. Unfortunately, he knows them both and only makes his feelings of guilt worse.

"Ah, Father Vector!" Christopher says, nearly jumping out of his chair and putting away his art materials. Vector was always doing something more interesting than translating snakes. "Yes, how are you today?" Christopher responded, shaking his hand firmly. The boy grew to have a stronger grip.

"Well, Chris, well. Do you have some glasses?" Vector asked, looking into Christopher's curious eyes. No, he did not deserve to die at his age. This older fellow was probably well on his way to death long before he decided to poison him and keep the secret hidden. Yes, this old man would die one way or another.

"Of course," the young man answered.

"Father, I am so glad to see you. It is the most extraordinary thing! This is most amazing finding! I mean, look at thi - "

"Yes, you must be parched," Vector said with a small smile. This was bound to be it. Though it saddened him to have to wipe the excited smile off the elder man's face, he simply could not have the eighth element as a public attraction like some statue in a museum.

"Huh?" the seasoned explorer questioned, hearing water being poured into three cups.

He looked down and saw the generous priest pour water into equal shares. Once he completed his small offering, the man chuckled a bit, brought the cup to his lips, and then lowered it again to read the wall's writings again. Vector had never wanted to punch another human so badly. Of course, in his younger years, the crocodile was quite pugnacious; however, he gave his life to a higher being and has since become a pacifist.

The man remarked, "It is like a battle plan. The good and the evil, and here..." the man dragged his fingers along the path of a carved in ray of light and continued, "a weapon against evil. I am going to be famous!"

"Then, let us..." Vector said, plotting in that instant. "Let us toast to your fame."

"Ah, yes, to fame," the elder agreed, touching his cup against the others and lifting it to his eye level. "Salute!" Vector watched as the man drunk maybe a teaspoon of the poisoned water and then looked at it in question. The elder looked into the cup, chuckled, and then poured the water out while saying, "You can't drink a toast with water! Christopher, get the white wine out of my satchel."

"Yes," Christopher agreed, pointing at his elder with a knowing glance. It was about to be an exciting afternoon in another hour or so after three cups of the old man's wine. He always had such fine tastes in wines.

Christopher left Vector alone with the old man and went to retrieve some wine from the man's satchel. Vector growled beneath his chest, failing to do what he planned but relieved that he hadn't slain another.

"Yes, I don't understand but this," the seasoned elder pointed. "Maybe I could do something here or maybe here."

The pink-haired girl and mongoose were returning from the nearby well after obtaining a full bag of water and some fresh fruit. The few children that were around to help the American explorers were yelping in their native language with glee at the sight of food. This woke little Tikal and made her hungry also. Vector turned to hear the tiny footsteps rising up the stairs. That was until he heard humming in the distance, an all-too-familiar humming. The camels could hear the humming from above and looked up to see a large spacecraft embarking near the temple - near them. They shuffled to their feet and began trampling to get one of the children to release them. It was the largest object anyone had ever seen! Shadows were blanketing the temple and blocking the morning sun from the village children helping the explorers.

Vector soon turned his attention from the American man to the shadows befalling the temple. His mouth slowly opened, not knowing that the "saviour" from another land was coming, as he walked toward the entrance of the temple. The children watched the ship land in silence as did Christopher. No one moved.

"They're here," Vector whispered to himself.

"This man... this perfect being. This is the key - I know it," the old explorer said, looking at the ancient wall again with a magnifying glass.

Christopher was godsmacked at seeing the light grid of the spacecraft completely fill the entrance to the temple. His mouth was practically dropping to the floor as he stared at the craft in awe. It was anachronistic! A vehicle built before anyone's time!

"This divine light that they talk about, what is divine light?" the professor questions, noticing the fading light once again. He sighs then drops his head before shouting, "Tikal, light!" Lights from the spacecraft's bottom beam into the temple's halls casting greater light than the gold mirror. The professor is impressed by this and says, "Much better. Thank you, Tikal."

Tikal looks down at her gold mirror in shock from the bright light pouring in through the temple. Christopher shook with fear then ran to his art supplies that were left near the entrance. The bottom of the ship opened with smoke pouring out from below and from the sides. Several figures in black armor lumbered out to the stairs one by one. He huddled into a corner, hoping these "monsters" would not see him. He rushed as he drew their profiles in complete fear and awe. Tikal heard the stomping from the front and turned her head to see the monsters walking towards Father Vector, who she had not seen come in since she woke up. Her mouth was open in fear and gaping like an oxygen-deprived fish as she sunk behind her gold mirror and quivered. The yellow mongoose came through a secret passageway out of the temple and called Tikal. The pink echidna turned her, saw the escape route, and nodded. She began to cleverly set the mirror up and sneak her way out.

Vector walked toward the ship's entrance, gaping at the light pouring in through the temple's halls. He whispered quite gently, "My lord..."

"Father, this is the most unbelievable thing I have ever seen! Don't you think?" the seasoned man commented, turning in glee before he was suddenly in the face of one of the monsters. He stood still with fear before asking, "A-are you German?" He watched the monster shake its head then turn to the last monster.

On his knees, Vector was before the leader of the pack saying, "Lord, I know he was about to discover everything, but there is no worry. I was there in time."

The smaller, slender monster stood before Vector and nodded. It took a moment before speaking to their Mobian contact. It said, "Priest. You and those before you have served us well, but war is coming. Emeralds not safe on Mobius anymore."

Vector lowered his head in disappointment: disappointment in himself and disappointment in the echidnas. It was the echidnas' responsibility to guard this temple. They were the ones who worshipped the "eighth element," not him. However, it was his alien lord that entrusted him to ensure the safety of the echidnas' sacred weapon of the universe. If anyone knew about the "eighth element" or its divine power, all is lost and many would seek the "eighth element" for its power - both good and evil. As the leader in black armor walked toward the wall and deciphered the divine language, the seasoned elder looked over one of the other monsters shoulder and watched the leader produce a four-winged key with a thin stem from its finger. The leader inserted the key inside a small crevice and waited as the walls opened. Tikal was already escaping the temple in fear. Christopher tried to call out to her but was also afraid of the monsters attempting to kill them all. Father Vector seemed to know them, but they were terrifying.

The elder also watched the walls open and commented, "This is really amazing..."

The leader turned to another monster and nodded to eliminate their new liability. The other armored member walked behind the professor and inflicted mental damage so great that it killed the professor in an instant. The only thing the armored aliens witnessed of the man was that he lay on a wooden board dead silent. They continued on into the temple with Vector slipping in behind them, having never been this far into the temple of the ancient echidnas. The scaly clergyman watched as the armored aliens walked around an erect sarcophagus and remained silent as they worked.

He then whispered to himself, "The eighth element."

The second-in-command to the leader also gazed at the statue and thought to himself what the priest said aloud. He then remembered the mission and turned to the others, ordering them to, "Take the stones."

Each alien pulled out a dormant, web-covered diamond from its pedestal and brought it to an even older-looking case where the powerless stones will rest on their new journey. Once the second-in-command securely closed and locked the stones in the case, he assigned two others to levitate the sarcophagus out of the temple and into the ship. Christopher had finally decided to take action against someone after not hearing or seeing the professor flee from the monsters after Tikal ran from her spot safely. He revealed a small machine gun from his father's collection of army guns and shifted his art supplies around to stand up. Moments later, the sarcophagus was floating on its side next to one of the monsters and boarding the ship quietly. The leader was pleased once the temple was empty, but Vector grew even more afraid after hearing the professor's discoveries.

Vector said, "My lord, if you take the weapon, we will be defenseless once the Black Thanatos returns."

"In 300 years, when the Black Thanatos returns, so shall we," the leader replied.

Christopher found enough courage in his heart to point his gun to nothing but an empty entryway into the spacecraft, which he was not boarding. He then turned after finding nothing to shoot and ran to the professor once he saw his foot lying lifeless on the temple floors.

"Oh, professor," he whispered, feeling his heart stop. He kneeled next to the old man and shook him violently, screaming, "Grandpa!"

Vector turned to Christopher, along with the alien leader, and was hurt to see Christopher weeping for the loss of his vibrant grandparent. Christopher then turned to Father Vector and immediately stumbled back up, gun in quaking hands, and prepared to defend his dead grandfather who one of these monsters had the guts to kill.

"H-hey! Don't move!" Christopher threatened weakly. He saw Vector protecting him and waved his hand for the priest to move. He could never hurt Vector. He threatened again, "I... I have a gun!"

"Chris. Please understand..." Vector tried, hoping he could reach the boy. He didn't deserve to die like his grandfather too, no matter how unbelievable the situation might seem. "They are our friends."

"Friends? Father, they killed the professor. They're monsters," Christopher argued, holding the gun firm in his hands even though they were shaking tremendously. At any moment, another monster could come out, but if the leader was gone - vengeance was his.

"I expected everything," Vector said, walking towards Christopher.

"You're with them?" Christopher questioned incredulously.

"Chris, look at me. I am afraid," Vector tried, placing a gentle claw on his chest.

Christopher looked into Vector's eyes, confused and more afraid. He didn't know whether he should shoot the alien and the priest or salvage one for the other. He shook his head a little then whimpered, "No, father."

"Chris, look at me!" Vector roared, desperate and pleadingly. "Please, _put the gun down_."

"No," Christopher responded, tripping over his bag and pressing the trigger accidently.

"Chris, no!" Vector called.

The ricochetting bullets hit the leader in his face and hit one of the ancient walls, causing the walls to close in defense. Vector turned back around, now afraid for Christopher and the leader. He saw the walls close and realized that the leader would never be able to make it out of the thick defenses with that heavy armor unless he removed some of it or ran through. Realizing, there was no time to worry about his life, the leader slowly walks to Vector and decides to give him a far more important responsibility.

"Hurry, the wall is closing!" Vector suggests, shaking his hands to beckon the smaller leader to escape faster.

"Here is your mission now, priest," the leader says, removing his helmet and revealing a young face. "Pass on your knowledge as it was passed on to you."

"I-I-I will do as you command, but please hurry! You still have time!" Vector said, seeing that the leader was practically a child and Vector couldn't watch a child die.

"Time is not important. Only life is important," the little boy said, reaching out his four-winged key to Vector.

Vector cringed as the walls crushed his leader with only the tips of his armored fingers wedged in and handing the priest the key. He released a small cry, wondering why he couldn't pull the boy out but understanding the child's words. He took the leader's key and ran out to the temple's entrance only to see the ship leaving.

"I will fulfill my mission! You can count on me!" Vector reassured, holding the key in his hand tightly. "I will pass on the knowledge until you return!"


	2. Chapter 2

Once upon a time, in the ancient temple of Maysis Isle, a prediction was made by the echidna race that when three planets are in ecliptic formation, the Black Thanatos will return from its 5,000 year slumber to destroy all life on the world humanity has cherished for centuries. Little knowledge of this Thanatos has been known by anyone for several millenia. It is now in the year 2220, 300 years since anyone knew of the Thanatos's return. On a common spacecraft radar, the three planets predicted to form a triangular eclipse have moved in perfect formation. Men and women are hurrying to their positions to gather tangible evidence of a new threat to the planet Mobius.

"Deploy any ship. Stabilizing," an officer commands.

The commander of this ship is proud of hearing his fellow army men working their hardest to identify the interstellar life form approaching them. However, he is also worried that the life form is a war vessel since it came from literally nowhere but its signals can be read from anywhere. Something as common as a cellphone can pick up this life form's radio frequency.

He scowled at the intruder and asked his second-in-command, "Anything yet?"

"No sir."

"Not even a temperature?" the commander questioned, emotionlessly.

"The thermal analyzers have jammed. One of them shows a million degrees; the others minus 5000."

"Let's see it," the commander order, unconvinced that a life form wouldn't even have a temperature. Every physical object had some form of kinetic energy, especially mobile ones. He didn't study ten years' worth of Newton's theories for nothing! There was no possible reason for a moving object not to have a measurement of that energy.

The black screen in front of the ship initially opened mechanically as its hinges creaked then slid open much easier like a silent door. The commander and all the lower officers working saw nothing but pure space as they cruised the interstellar frontier. A planet passed them by as they went, but no one cared about another planet. Mobius was aware of other life on other planets. With mind-boggling technology and advancements in communications, the people of Mobius could learn Spanish and Nocturnus or French and Martian. Their concern was of far more importance: there was a dwarf-like blob taking some form of shape. The commander did not like uninvited blobs in his space frontier while he guarded Mobius. His lip curled in a snarl as he scowled at the fiery substance. The inner merchant in him thought of what Mobian scientists could do with the metals possibly trapped inside of the helium, hydrogen, or nitrogen gases engulfing the body. Then again, if it was a dangerous imploding star, those metals and gases could destroy the battleships in the frontier.

"It's taking shape," a navigator notioned.

He read the data forming on his screen as he calculated the diameter of the spherical body that was forming from void area. The men could see a suspicious body becoming enlarged like popcorn kernels changing form in a rolled-up, black aluminum ball. Light was revealing itself as the misshapen thing took a rough shape. Lightning passed then thunder sounded and abruptly an implosion caused a wave of fire to spew from the ball. The blob had reached its final form: a black ball of sinister flames. It glowed ominously as an interstellar timebomb just waiting for its chance to explode and kill all.

"Send out a probe," the commander ordered, not knowing what to make of the flame ball.

* * *

His body quaked from nervous energy as the doors to his oval office slid open from above. Third-year president and beloved leader, Mighty Tatou, took a deep breath and proceeded to enter the office to meet with other intelligent minds about the new threat one of the spatial frontier commanders has found. Being president was hardly an easy task. Everyone watched you, and if you make a mistake everyone pushes you to resign from your position. Whether you accidently send a hot message for your wife to your secretary or your vice-president, people will always watch you.

"Ladies and gentlemen," he heard the intercom say, "the president of the Federated territory."

Mighty bowed his head as he reached his desk and took a calm seat before the legion of men and women at the frontier's headquarters in Metal City. His charming assistant, Cream, waited for him to prepare himself and proceeded to inform him of whatever news she had. Mighty once had a crush on the young female rabbit, but she was far too young for him.

"General Speed will be on air in thirty seconds."

Mighty nodded then watched as the other busier folk hustled about. A latecomer entered the oval office in complete silence as he also watched the legion busying themselves from the entryway. He sighed as he thought of the long processing he had to endure just to get here, but he quickly erased it for the meeting that would ensue. Such life, such atmosphere being threatened by the ultimate evil. In some ways, he was rather disappointed that no one acknowledged him or his mission as a priest of the divine power that could save this world. However, modesty and a humble disposition were what he prayed for on this day. He approached a familiar, pink-skinned profile dressed in particularly unattractive robes - much like himself - as he directed his attention to the young man. He raised his hand and patted his shoulder, startling the young chap.

The man sighed in relief and said, "I saved a seat for you, father."

The newcomer nodded then shuffled to his seat as he hid the buckle of his belt. He wasn't sure why priests involved themselves in the government. He wasn't sure why his forefathers and predecessors kept the eighth element a secret until the very end, but he did understand the importance of his mission to protect all forms of life through his alien communications skills and negotiation procedures.

* * *

"President on the line, sir," the second-in-command informed.

"We're in position, Mr. President," the commander said.

**'I'll have to address the Supreme Council in ten minutes. Just the facts will do.'**

"There are no results from the thermal or molecular analyses as yet. All our calibers are overshot. We're initiating a thermal nucleatic imaging."

**'So...what you're saying is you don't know what this is.'**

"Not yet, sir. All we know is that it keeps getting bigger."

**'Recommendation?'**

"My philosophy, Mr. President, is to shoot first and ask questions later. I don't like uninvited guests."

**'Alright then, Speed - '**

* * *

"Mr. President," he called, raising his hand in protest of any dangerous bombing or shooting.

"Yes?" Mighty looked to the Council members and spotted one rather tall, attractive male hedgehog standing before him. His fur was a beautiful white color with a tint of shine in it, but the red robes he donned did him no justice. If he wore normal clothes, he would have been the finest man to walk in the Council room. As Mighty watched the hedgehog with curiosity, the overhead identity intercom sounded to introduce the man.

"Priest Silver Couverture, expert on astrological phenomenon."

"I have a different theory to offer you, sir."

"You have twenty seconds."

Another attractive priest in red robes stood alongside Silver, and even though his skin color was a dark fuschia he was still another fine specimen in ugly priest-wear. Silver raised a finger to signal for the younger boy to sit back down and thought about his words. It was a rather cold fact of politics that President Mighty could be very ignorant at times when he was needed to be the most mature and calculative, but you could never try to tame Mr. Mighty unless you had a plasma gun at hand. Silver looked into Mighty's eyes and proceeded to walk towards him while explaining the occurrence of the threat.

He said, "Imagine for a moment that this...thing is not anything that can be identified because it prefers not to be. Wherever there is life, it brings death because...because it is evil - absolute evil."

"One more reason to shoot first."

"Evil begets evil, Mr. President. Shooting will only make it stronger."

On the space frontier, a probe specialist released an analytical mechanism to observe the ball of fire closer. The commander nodded at the specialist, hoping that the probe may tell them more about the ball.

**"Sending out probe 1. The probe will obtain its objective in five seconds," the specialist informed, reading the information off his screen.**

The probe shot out of it cannon and was pulled directly into the body. The commander concluded that the flaming ball had some gravitational pull like a distant planet. At headquarters, another general was reading information about the planet after the probe had been released. This general, in particular, was a green-feathered hawk and impressive leader during a war on Mars. His name was Jet Halcon, known for his attention to detail and ability to choose some of the best operatives. While the president and Silver were speaking, he was keeping in contact with the second-in-command on General Speed's battleship to get more information on the new enemy. Keeping his eye on the virtual holograms, he noticed that the planet, or ball of fire, had grown considerably but he didn't understand exactly how. Does metal make it grow larger or what?

"Mr. President, growth has increased by seventeen percent," the general noted.

Mighty turned to the general and nodded before turning back to Father Silver and sighing a bit. He didn't know who to trust at this point. The data told him one thing, but the priest told him something more. Here is where the line is drawn but who will he choose to cross it? Mighty looked into Silver's eyes and said in honesty, "Your theory does interest me, father, but we don't have time to go into that right now."

"Time is of no importantance, Mr. President. Only life is important," Silver reminded, walking closer to the president's desk. If the president was going to draw the line by the level of importance between a theory and data, then he was going to cross that line or convince him to draw another one before the data.

"You're right," Mighty said, growing impatient. "That's exactly what we're gonna do. We're gonna protect the lives' of some 200 billion of my fellow citizens!" Mighty turned to General Halcon and said, "General, you may fire when ready."

General Speed nodded his head and began dishing out orders immediately following the president's approval. He could care less about a priest's theory so long as the threat to Earth was destroyed.

**'Prepare to fire a Locke Zeon missile 1-20. Offensive engaging to target the threat,' Speed said.**

The second-in-command and navigators watched the ball, wondering what it might do, and were shocked to see the visible pits of fire somehow disappear and the surface shift to void state. The scientists at Metal City headquarters were also watching the planet and were drawing different conclusions from the shift on the surface. One of the younger scientists realized that there was virtually no surface activity.

"It's structure has just solidified on the surface."

"I think it is anticipating the attack," one of the older scientists said. "Anticipation denotes intelligence."

"The most terrible intelligence imaginable, Mr. President," Silver interjected, now in front of Mighty's desk with little room between him and the cherrywood edge.

Mighty waivered under Silver's gaze and sat in silence at the man before him. He certainly was a lot taller up close and his shirt beneath the red robe was gripping his muscular form. When were priests attractive like this?

_C'mon, Mighty, there's a giant ball of fire in space possibly attacking Mobius and all you can think about is a hot priest? Are you kidding me? _He thought.

Mighty was beginning to misunderstand his own line drawing and leaned toward the priest's theory much more than the data. If even the military can't identify what the fireball actually is, but Silver presented reasonable evidence that this... thing was a killing machine that doesn't want to be identified until death was breathing down their necks, then what was the point of relying on the data? Silver must know what this thing is more than the military.

**'1-20s loaded.'**

**'The ship is in combat formation. Missiles have been loaded, Mr. President,' General Speed informed.**

Mighty began to rub his hands nervously. What if Silver was right and Speed was at the mercy of this...thing? What if firepower made this thing stronger? How strong was it to begin with? He shifted his eyes left and right then said, "Speed?"

**'Yes, sir?'**

"I have a doubt," Mighty tried, wanting to abort fire but not wanting to let the thing continue to be a threat.

**'I don't Mr. President,' Speed responded.**

* * *

Stupid president always changing his mind. He wasn't about to let some giant ball hit Mobius and destroy life as he knew it. The missiles were launched at the body with great precision. The minute the missiles imploded, the fire pits on the body were visible again and body grew larger. Neither Speed nor anyone else understood the phenomena.

**'Speed...what happened? Speed, can you hear me? Speed... what happened, Speed? Did you destroy it?'**

"I'm about to, sir," Speed said, now waivering on his own decision.

More missiles were launched with the same precision as before, but the fire pits became even more visible and the ball grew larger. The missiles were like water to an empty balloon.

**'The planet is increasing diameter by 200 percent,' General Halcon informed, now really concerned for Speed's safety and the ship.**

**'Any bigger and it could swallow the ship,' another general said.**

The second-in-command watched the ball grow larger and walked toward a navigator to estimate the amount of time the ship had before the planet could kill them all.

"W-what do we have that's bigger than a 2-40?" Speed asked, fearing the worst.

"Nothing sir," the second-in-command answered, gazing into death's flaming features. Hell was on its way.

**'Speed...do you hear me? Get out of there!' Mighty commanded. 'I don't want an incident. Do you hear me, Speed? Get out of there. Speed, can you hear me, Speed? Listen! This is the president. That's an order! Speed, answer me!'**

There was nothing the president could do for the red-headed general at that point. The ball was already too close. He could feel his own body being drawn to death as he quaked with fear. Gravity pressure was opening pores in his brain as blood cascaded down his forehead. His eyes were shifting at death's light. Then, without warning, his life and the many others ended. He didn't have time to think about his family or his life at home or his childhood or anything. His lasting memory was fear before he saw nothing else...

* * *

"AH!"

Was heard through the quiet apartments before someone from downstairs hit the ceiling with something heavy so it could be heard through his floor. Apparently, his neighbor downstairs had just fallen asleep before he started fucking someone. At least that's what he managed to hear. His heart was pounding through his chest, making heavier sounds than the bat on the ceiling, and it actually hurt him. His fingers were trembling as he raked them through his black hair and groped the items on his shelf. He looked around, thinking he saw death before his own eyes, but chuckled to himself a bit before realizing he wasn't on the space frontier anymore. He was at his cramped, sloppy, cheap-rent apartment and sitting up in his bed in the dark. He leaned his head on the wall next to his bed to calm his nerves and the excitement of his nightmare. Light ringing further woke him up to bring him back to reality. He rubbed his eye, breathed deep, and then squinted his eyes to turn off his alarm clock. Somehow forgetting that the alarm clock also activated the electricity in the apartment, he jumped very slightly as he heard his cigarette machine say something along the lines of...

"...your limit is four a day."

He slumped over at the edge of the bed, trying to stretch his neck and adjust to the lighting in his apartment. His beautiful white cat was outside mewing to be let in. Thank god he didn't have a dog; those bastards were noisy as hell. Everyone should have a cat at least once in his or her life. They're cute, soft to the touch, seek very little attention, and most importantly don't make a lot of noise. His darling kitty was his favorite pet. As he looked up from his disheveled black hair, he read the words "Keep Clear" on his wall.

"Trying..." he mumbled.

"To quit is my goal," the cigarette machine motivated.

Moments later, the phone rang obnoxiously. He groaned at this and the cat instantly knew it had to get in the apartment or else he'd throw the phone out of the window if she wasn't there. Yes, he had a female cat, but she was properly spayed, had no fleas or ticks, and had a collar on her neck that proved he owned her. He'd had her since she was a cute kitten. The phone persistently rang to annoy him.

"Aye, aye, aye, aye, aye, aye!" he groaned. "Mom. God, alright, I'm up." He said, rising to his feet. His cat was mewing even more to be let in, which was a good sign for him, so he told himself not to pitch the phone anywhere. He hissed out, "Yes, yes...! Yes?"

**'Hey, dog-brain, Omega here.'**

He scoffed at this and pushed a button to open the cat's door to get in the apartment. A white cat darted in the apartment and ran over to his leg to nuzzle against it. She was such a sweet cat. He said to it, "Hey, sweetie."

**'I love you, too, major, but you haven't called me that since basic training.'**

"I was talkin' to the cat," he grumbled sarcastically, retrieving a cigaretted from the machine. He groped around searching for a lighter and managed to find a red one, but the red lighter wouldn't light. His cat mewed as it climbed on his leather sofa and clawed at something between the cushions. She dug out a blue lighter, grabbed it with her mouth, and strutted towards him. He smirked, clapped lightly, and kneeled to retrieve the item. "Good job, girl," he said, patting the cat's head then lighting his cigarette.

**'Oh yeah, I forgot. You still prefer your cat over the real thing.'**

"Well, at least the cat comes back."

**'You still pinin' over that two-timin' slut? Forget about her, man. There's a million other women out there.'**

"I don't want a million women," he remarked, seeing a turned-over frame and looking at it. It was a picture of his ex-wife and him on their honeymoon. Back then, she was a curved beauty with long white hair and gorgeous turquoise eyes who loved pink and black. He, of course, was a finer stud in his day with long black hair and stunning red eyes who still loves red and black. Everyone thought they'd stay together 'til death and so did he, but she had other ambitions and other men who were interested in her. He tossed the frame to the side, ignoring his memories trying to remind of the suckish fall from grace, and said to Omega, "I just want one. The perfect one."

**'Don't exist, major.'**

"Yeah, I know," he said, finding another picture. This one was a picture of the man on the phone after he saved him from Crisis City. He was in bad shape then. He groaned out, "Ew!"

**'What?'**

"Just found a picture of you."

**'Oh, how do I look?'**

"Like shit," he commented, slamming the picture down. No memories today please. He raided his fridge, or what should have been a full fridge, and saw nothing but space, an empty salad container, and a cereal box that was empty anyway. What was four Frosted Flakes and a pile of sugar gonna do? Some groceries would be nice, but he doesn't get paid until Friday.

**'Well, must have been an old picture. Listen, I'm bringin' you in for a six month overhaul.'**

"Negative."

**'ASAP.'**

"I don't need one," he argued.

**'Hey, you gettin' set up for a thousand missions. I know how you drive.'**

"Omega, I drive a cab now. I'm not a space fighter.'

**'Okay, so tell me, how many points left you got on your license? Major, how many points?'**

He tried to think of a number - any number - that would be far from the truth. Even though he could ride a cruiser or hover fighter, the cab industry and its customers were some picky riders. He said, "At least fifty."

**Omega laughed then said, 'You know what? You need to learn how to lie better. See you tonight.'**

He pivoted slowly to press his back against the refrigerator door and began to think. The diaphragm inhaled his nicotine deeply then blew it all out in thick clouds before they became thin tendrils out of his nose. The cat mewed before playing with the TV remote and pushed the power button to turn it on. That was a smart cat. He turned his head to the TV and heard the most annoying radio show to be invented...

**'Welcome to Sand Oasis,' a woman's voice purred.**

**'Welcome to Sand Oasis! This is Sonic the Hedgehog, your main man, and I will tell live at five the winner of the Supergreen Gemini Croquet contest. The winner will go with me for two days to Sand Oasis so stay tuned to Radio Cosmo!'**

"Don't watch too much of that, sweetie," he said, getting dressed for work. The cat mewed then looked at him bending over. He turned around to pull his shirt down and noticed that the cat was no longer watching the TV but him. He raised a dark eyebrow as the cat stood on her hind legs and waved her small paw at him. He huffed at her then said, "Sorry, honey, no stripteases. It's early in the morning. When I come home tonight, I'll let you sleep with me naked, okay?" The cat mewed in disappointment then continued to watch the TV on his sofa. He sighed then said, "Alright, you, be careful. It'll rot your pretty little brain."

With that said, he left his white cat on the sofa with the TV on. Luckily, he trained her to turn it off when she was done watching it. He grabbed his keys and license then left the apartment to load his hover cab in the garage. Once he entered the cab, he was annoyed by yet another machine.

**'Please insert your license.'**

"Alright, alright, gimme a second. Geez!" he complained silently enough to where he couldn't hear himself talk.

**The cab light sounded and the computer greeted him robotically, 'Welcome on board, Mr. Shadow Letzte. You have five points left on your license before renewal on July ninth of 2221. Please be sure to level the vehicle and take safety precautions when leaving the dock.'**

"Yes, thank you," Shadow said, rolling his eyes as the doors opened.

**'Have a nice day.'**


	3. Chapter 3

The pink-fleshed young apprentice was quite nervous as Silver called him to bring the legendary book of the fallen Echidna race. Though its pages were yellow and aging, there was such a visual history behind every page and only the choosen ones of the divine priesthood like his predecessor, Silver Couverture, could read its history along the corners and margins of the pages. He was rather proud of Silver as a sort of father figure, leader, and of course divine mentor. As he ran to his master with the book, the young apprentice bowed as he handed Silver the book, blushing very faintly when their fingers touched. No one could deny that his master was quite the beauty. It was rumored that he was once very open to dating and other pleasures before he made his vows of chastity. Nodding at his mentor, the man backed away and watched Silver explain his piece. The president no longer had a choice now that the once rambunctious General Sam Speed and his legion were dead.

"You have 48 hours," Silver started, placing the book down with a stern look. "That's the length of time it needs to adapt to our living conditions."

"And then?" Mighty prompted, looking into Silver's eyes. They were a deliciously remarkable color! Where are they finding such hot priests?

_God dammit! Focus, Mighty!_ the president thought, hissing to himself.

"And then it will be too late. The goal of this thing is not to fight for money or for power..." Silver said, fading off into thought. He could remember hearing his mentor telling him the dreadful fate Mobius may face without the eighth element there to stop the great evil. He continued, "But to exterminate life - all forms of life."

"So what're you telling me, father? There's nothing that can stop this?"

"There is only one thing..." Silver suggested, using a rather shrewd and seductive purr in his voice to convince the president to give his full attention to him. He was always told he had a provocative voice and vowed to only use it when the time called for it. He said, quite confidently, "The Nocturnus have in their possession the only weapon to defeat evil. Seven elements formed into dormant emeralds that gather around an eighth: the supreme being and ultimate warrior created to protect life. Together they produce what the ancients call a light of creation able to restore life to the farthest regions of the universe, but if evil stands there..."

"Then what?" Mighty prompted as he watched Silver point to different parts of pictures to show evidence of his strategy.

"Then light turns to dark, life to death... forever," Silver answered, conveying that eery sense of death in his tone of voice. Mighty watched him in silence as they stared each other down until a ring disturbed them.

"Sir," General Halcon called, "there's a Nocturnus spaceship at the frontier requesting permission to enter our territory."

Mighty paused to weigh his options then looked into Silver's eyes, waiting for the taller priest to waver somehow, but he couldn't find any fault to him. He breathed deep, looking at the drawing that showed the dark energy poisoning the Echidna populace, and then said, "Give it permission to enter our territory. I want to give him my regards."

Silver sighed in relief then smiled and said with a soft nod, "Thank you."

* * *

"Permission to enter granted."

A voice on the computer said to one of the inhabitants of the large spaceship. These creatures dressed in black armor and interesting-looking gas masks of World War II design in the 1940s were calmly piloting their ship to disembark onto Mobius through the frontier gates into the planet. Several spatial frontier guards were stationed near the planet and its moon in case of any intruders or pirates of another planet waging war or trying to steal from neighboring ships. The leader of the Nocturnus removed her mask for a moment to reveal orange fur and a lovely feminine face with a good sense of duty. She was an echidna like her ancestors who guarded the eighth element and worshipped the divine light the element possessed.

"Shade," a Nocturnus called, earning his captain's attention.

"Yes?" she responded.

"Silver has fulfilled his part of the mission. The Mobian military have allowed us to enter their territories. We must tell the element of our new Mobian contact. He will be the only man capable of speaking to the element in his own native, romantic language."

"I see," Shade said, walking over to a control panel.

She pushed several buttons on the panel and watched as the computer downloaded Silver's information and legal history. Skimming through several facts, she placed her fingers onto the holographic screen the information displayed itself across and dragged the information onto her portable notepad. (The notepad was located on her hip.) She then walked over to an almost coffin-looking gurney holding the weight of a case with something heavy inside of it and a body clinging to the handle of the case. The pad was then attached to an adapter and a scanning process started. The sarcophagus containing their divine eighth element lay under a sort of laser incubator to keep the body inside of it warm. However, there wasn't much of a body left. Most of the remains of the eighth element were simply bone and dust for flesh, not including the leather skin still clinging to certain parts of the cadaver's form. The only thing being kept warm, in actuality, was the brain and heart still keeping its whole form inside of the rotting bag of bones. As Shade pushed a few buttons to complete the incubator's scanning, she activated a virtual matrix field that located the brain and heart of the corpse. A heat-sensor diagram showed the many different colors traveling through these internal body parts. She double-clicked the screen on her notepad then dragged Silver's information into the cerebrum of the element's brain.

Not long after the ship was entering Mobian territory, two unknown fighter crafts swooped down as they locked onto their target. Inside these fighters were two different robots with a strangle emblem of a moustachioed man above a code number. These robots grazed their cold, metallic fingers along the surfaces of their panels to activate the ammo in the cannons and automatic guns. One of the robots almost smirked as they closed in on the large Nocturnus ship. This robot had red-painted and glossed armor plates on its shoulder joints, head cap, knuckles of its fingers, and its breastplate. Its eyes glowed an ominous red as he grabbed two levers to control the aim of the cannons and guns.

"Showtime," he said darkly to his comrades, earning nods and a change in attack formation.

Attack alerts sounded in the Nocturnus ship, frightening everyone on board. Shade looked to the sarcophagus as the download was still processing then rushed over to one of the navigators to look at their security cameras. As soon as she saw what was closing in on them, the ship had been hit severely by a laser cannon from several fronts along the rear almost taking out the propellers. More hits sent everyone reeling in their seats and gripping anything to prevent being thrown to the floor from impact. Shade heard the download complete then heard an explosion.

"Our engine room's been hit!"

"Run to the escape pods!" Shade commanded.

"No..." the second-in-command whispered above all the noise and commotion. "I won't leave your side, captain."

"But you must..." Shade said.

"We are not like the humans, captain. You don't have to remain on the ship alone."

Shade looked to her crew, not wanting to leave her behind, and then to the eighth element. It made her want to cry but she took a deep breath and remained strong. She commanded, "Very well. It has been an honor and a pleasure to work with you all. Close off all ports linking information of the eighth element and the priesthood. The eighth element must escape the ship and be found by the Mobians safely. First priority! Activate any shields that are functional and prepare for landing!"

Everyone was sent rushing to complete their final tasks as death closed in on them. Shade ran to the sarcophagus and saw a small tear flowing from the eye of the element. She leant down and sweetly kissed it away. Her final words before implosion were as sweet as a lover's promise.

"My purpose in this mission is complete. Find the priest. Continue your purpose," she whispered, tears falling from her own face. "You are a kinder spirit than any human, any creature could hope to be. I pray that you will live beyond your purpose and show that kindness to a love most befitting to you. I know you may not understand me, but please... Learn the true meaning of humanity and I promise you will find happiness beyond your powers."

Soon, once her words passed to the element, she and all the crew were gone...

Inside the fighter crafts, the robots flew away from the crash impact to escape the flames trying to catch their own tails. Mobian fleets were trying to subdue them, but the robots accelerated far too fast from them. Once they were deemed safe, one of the robots reminded the leader to inform their employer of their victory.

"Sir, we must contact Robotnik," a yellow plated robot said, earning a nod.

"E-190, we are connected to Earth," a blue plated robot informed, turning on all speakers.

_**"Dr. Eggman's office?" a feminine voice answered.**_

"It's E-190."

_**"I'm so glad to hear from you E-190," a strained, male voice said.**_

"The mission is accomplished. We'll have what you asked for in a few hours."

_**"Good. I'll meet you at my factory."**_

* * *

"We are lost..." Silver whispered, feeling his confidence ripped from him.

The chameleon apprentice knew no soothing words that could help his mentor. He only knew that when he was down, he was down. He had to heal himself on his own. Just as he whispered to himself, Silver was being healed even in the middle of losing all hope. That's just his process before bouncing back. As Silver spiralled in depression, the apprentice tried his best to listen to what else was going on before he ran to Silver's side.

"The attack was launched by two unregistered warships," a general informed.

"Close all borders and send an ambassador. We owe the Nocturnus an explanation," Mighty commanded, not knowing how to fully explain what happened but promising to his best.

"Three hundred years of waiting for nothing," Silver whispered, saddening his apprentice.

"Father, you should go home now. Get some rest," Mighty suggested.

"No," Silver refused, becoming desperate now, "the Nocturnus...! I... I am their only contact. They will come for me."

Mighty hid all signs that he was in fact just as sad as Silver and his apprentice and simply shook his head at Silver. This small action silenced the priest and allowed the president to say, "Father, this is government business now. I will keep you informed."

The apprentice closed the book and led Silver out of the room. He caressed the hedgehog's slouching back for added comfort to accompany his hymnal singing. He lit up with a small smile when Silver responded to the hymn by singing along. Once the two were out of the building and in the valet entrance, Silver stopped his singing and began thinking. His eyes widened a bit when he remembered the church's scrolls he had to read before becoming a contact.

He said, "This isn't over, Espio."

"Father?" Espio questioned, furrowing his eyebrows.

"The Nocturnus are a peaceful race, but they are most noted for their obscene intelligence. They have the ability to predict things so accurate, it can be mistaken for reading into their own future. I was told Shade was leader of the ship transporting the eighth element."

"The orange echidna girl?" Espio inquired, feeling a bit sad. He liked Shade and had a bit of a crush on her when they first met. She was very pretty, after all.

"Unfortunately, yes, my friend. She was a brave warrior and clever. In fact, so clever... She would have been able to save many things and people on that ship!" Silver said, grabbing onto Espio's cloak. "We need a taxi for the church."

"Now?"

Back in the room, where the president and the generals were speaking of handling the attack, General Jet Halcon received word from one of the rescue units. He ran to the president with the new information and waited for him to finish with one of the generals before speaking.

"The rescue unit for the Nocturnus have reported from the crash site."

"Any survivors?"

"Only one."

* * *

In a city not far from the government buildings, a different hedgehog was walking through an upcoming major company in reconstructing services. It was termed revolutionary in some parts of the city and repulsive everywhere else, but it was making some decent money. Too bad he ruined the real amount of money the company could have made. Manic Verde was a reconstruction specialist in Rouge's Recon. He had been ever since the company started and found its base in Speed Highway. Rouge's office was at the very top of the building next to the reconstruction lab. If anything went wrong, she would be the first to know. Manic passed by his working area and knocked on his boss's door in nervous tension. He sometimes thought she could feel when something was wrong with him.

"Come in, Manic," her voice said, causing the green hedgehog to flinch.

Rouge was gazing out her window, drinking a warm cup of vanilla coffee. In the reflection, she saw Manic dressed in a ridiculous luau shirt with tattered, bleached jeans. Not once had he ever listened to her advice on dressing like a professional, but that's what she deserved from her boyfriend of nearly three years and business partner of five. At least she dressed like a president should even if her clothes were on borderline between stylish and skanky. She had a nice pink lace button-up over a white silk shirt that nearly blended in with her fur, black lace overlay over a regular cotton skirt that matched her wings, and white, black, and pink booties.

"Mr. Manic, have a seat," she commanded, turning to her office chair and taking a seat herself. She could feel the warm sun on her leathery wings and thinly-furred neck as she leaned over the desk to say, "What can I do for you?"

"Yeah," Manic sighed, sinking in his seat a little. He continued with a somewhat confident smirk, "I was wondering since I'm the only specialist in obtaining reconstructible samples for the company - "

"That you deserve a raise?" Rouge finished, raising an eyebrow. This was the tenth time he wanted a raise and not once did he ever deserve one. She propped her head in the palm of her hand and said, "Mr. Manic, half of your findings are stolen government property or just stolen property in general. My company can't thrive off stolen goods no matter how perfect the specimen. Your findings did help me start off great, but I've had to invest in lawsuits and profit losses more than actually making profit off the bots I sell."

"I know, ma'am, but if you could just give me a chance - "

"No..." Rouge answered, rising to her feet to look out of the window.

She sighed when she saw the early morning protestors outside her company's door for yet another strike against constructing robots, pleasure models, and the like. Why couldn't anyone understand how much the world can change with reconstructed organs? Diseases would be a thing of the past with a new heart or lung or even genitalia - it wouldn't matter! Anything that can prevent disease, cancer, health risks in general should be a welcomed thing! But no, no one cares about that. A natural disease is a better than no disease. If she could just prove to these people what her services could do, then there would be no reason to protest against her. She wasn't running an illegal mob group or expensive surgery compounds. Her business was affordable and legit. Just one perfect specimen could...

"Unless..." Rouge started, turning to Manic. He looked at her with a new light of hope. She smiled softly then said, "I tell you what? If you can find me the perfect specimen, and I mean so perfect and unknown you could mistake it for a rare diamond, then I'll give you a raise plus a bonus. Whaddaya say?"

Manic's eyes widened then his smile lit up the room and outshined the sun. He at first chuckled then clapped his hands and hopped out of his seat. He cheered, "I'll do it!"

"Good luck finding me the perfect specimen."

"I won't let you down, Ms. Rouge," Manic said, zooming out of the office and into his new land of opportunity.

He raced down to the parking lot downstairs in thought. How do you get a perfect specimen without stealing from the government or some excavation site? There had to be a real way out of this. What would a perfect specimen be? Someone genderless, immune to everything, human, anthro? What was he thinking? He couldn't find a perfect specimen without...

"Let's try trading with the government," Manic whispered to himself, finding his car. He took out his keys, unlocked the doors, and entered the vehicle in a new train of thought.


	4. Chapter 4

Jet Halcon, world-renowned fourth general of the Federal Territories' space frontier unit, was frazzled after seeing a beloved second general destroyed from the blast of a fire ball. Silver Couverture managed to get the president to agree to let the Nocturnus into their territory only to be attacked by unknown warships. Now, Jet had the privilege of having to explain what happened before a war occured between Mobius and the Nocturnus planet. His day was just fine and dandy. It almost made him feel nostalgic as he recalled his earlier days when he had to fight alongside his own troops and one of his prized fighter, Shadow Letzte. He wondered what he was doing as he walked down the corridor of a laboratory with his second-in-command, Storm Ahodori. The rescue unit informed him of a sole survivor from the crash site of the Nocturnus ship, so he was dying to see what became of their findings.

Unbeknownst to him, however, someone was watching the general as he made his way to the nucleolab. The lurking eyes gazed at the two men walking away from him then disappeared down another corridor. Manic Verde was practically a regular in the Space Frontier Headquarters of Metal City. He hissed in laughter at his own cunning. He used to be a janitor in this very same building until he met a certain white-furred female bat escorting some dark-furred guy, who used to work here as a soldier, around. While the guy was away, he got some time to play with the bat. Of course, he wasn't expecting the bat to be his boss five years later. This was no time to be remembering those days either. He came here for one thing and one thing only: the perfect specimen to reconstruct.

As he snuck his way into the nucleolab's specimen room down the hall, a familiar friend and co-worker walked out of the room with a cigarette hanging from his mouth. He was dancing to Latin music with his terrible dancing skills until he caught sight of the green hedgehog staring at him in surprise. It was a purple and white weasel with a yellow luau shirt and brown slacks versus Manic's red one and blue jeans.

"Hey, that you, Manny?" the weasel asked, pointing at his old friend.

"Nack, my man!" Manic greeted, giving the weasel a dap and noogie. "What you still doin' here?"

"I'm workin'!" the weasel answered, laughing and playfully fighting his friend. "I hear you been workin' a dame at her new comp'ny, ya? Good on ya!"

"Yeah, I got this new gig," Manic said, pulling Nack in to whisper. "It's top secret. Lemme in the room, 'kay? I pay you back."

"Sure thing, man," Nack said, pushing Manic off and opening the door with his ID and hand recognition passcode. He led his friend into the room and said, "So, whatcha need?"

"Anything new or discarded might do so long as it passes the _perfect_ evaluation exam," Manic says, placing quotes on perfect. "It can't be something the government want, and it can't be something any normal person would care about."

"Oh, I got one for you," Nack said, nodding at the description as vague as it was.

A normal person or anthroman wouldn't know what the hell Manic was asking for but Nack knew. Manic wanted some DNA from a specimen that didn't have any past, present, or future relationships of any kind with anyone and one that was a complete nobody. A specimen that wouldn't normally exist to anyone had it not been found. Nack went to the back of the specimen room, passing up multiple shelves and coffins with old bones, chunks of war-torn flesh, bottled eyes, pickled hands, and anything else you could find in some sort of container, and found a glass case on a gurney. He rolled it towards Manic and opened his virtual clipboard to get a serial number of the item.

He said, "This is the new specimen the rescue unit found from an alien ship crash site on one of Mobius's moons. One of the scientists planned to terminate reconstruction because of the lack of living cells from the bones or leftover tissue."

"Hmph, what a weird hand," Manic commented, taking out a portable scanner. He clicked a few buttons just to get a simple read on the bone structure and DNA, but, to his amazement, he got much more than a simple scanning. He got blueprints of the body that was once connected to the peculiar armor encompassing a forearm bone and its DNA! There was so much information that came from this arm alone that it caused his scanner to short-circuit and die. He gasped, "No way! I am so getting that raise."

"The specimen is over here. Give me a moment, sir."

"Well, time ta go!" Manic whispered, taking the hand. He reached into his shirt pocket and removed a robotic arm in the same condition as the hand. Nack chuckled at the similarity and watched as his friend hustled to shove the new specimen into his shirt pocket. Manic nodded then said, "Alright, man. I have to go! Dinner at my brother's place. I'll give you a present!"

"You'd better!" Nack called out, moving the gurney back into its place.

He faked like he hadn't even seen the robotic arm as he typed in codes in his clipboard innocently. General Halcon entered the room, following one of the scientists, and caught sight to the weasel as he walked over to an old specimen of bottled eyes. He turned his attention back to the human scientist as he rolled out the survivor from the crash site. It was obvious he hardly cared for the thing.

"That what you call a survivor?" Jet questioned, not seeing any spark or oil pour out of the wires.

"A few cells are still alive. That's all that I need."

"Really? Have you at least identified it?" Jet inquired.

"We tried but the charts were off the scale. I'd have to do it again to see if anything changed. Maybe something will come up."

* * *

"Mr. Manic, I thought I told you _not_ to find me a specimen that's stolen."

Rouge stared at the bone peeking out of the metal glove with disgust and admittedly some sort of interest. It definitely wasn't going to come into conflict with the protestors, but she wasn't expecting a mummified corpse either. What excavation team did he steal from this time? She noticed the hand was holding onto a handle for some sort of case. Whatever this creature was, it certainly couldn't have been that old. It could have been an Italian businessman trapped under volcanic ashes, but who was to know without doing a little research? However, no matter what questions she asked, there was still a dead guy in her building.

"Yeah, I know, but this one is that rare thing you were talking about," Manic defended, trying to wait for his portable scanner to recharge itself. He smacked it a few times, smirking when it worked properly, and then said, "Look at this!"

Rouge huffed then came over to see the scanner. She watched Manic work as he glided his fingers across his virtual screen to find the recent scan file. It still amazed her to see a janitor be able to work electronics so well and to even know anything about DNA. She actually found Manic a lot sexier when he worked. Once the file was located, he kept the scanner on its charger to show Rouge what he saw when he infiltrated the nucleolab.

"You see, normal human or animal DNA have 40 memo-groups, which is enough for any living thing to perpetuate itself. _This_..." Manic declared, pointing towards the dead guy with a little bit of bone left in his armor, "has _200,000_ memo-groups!"

Rouge looked at the arm then looked back to the screen to see nothing but blueprints and several numbers of different scanning completions. She remarked almost slowly, "Sounds like a freak of nature to me..."

"Makes you want to meet him, doesn't it?" Manic prompted, biting his lip as he looked into Rouge's eyes.

Rouge was about to argue with him until she saw his cute pouting lip and big, glittering eyes. She was a sucker for cute faces, she'll admit to that. She rolled her eyes then sighed and said, "Fine, I'll give you a raise and permission to reconstruct the dead guy."

"Yes, I love you!" Manic cheered, hugging Rouge tightly and pressing their cheeks together.

"But he'd better be as perfect as you say," Rouge couldn't help but smile at her boyfriend, but she did have to set the record straight so she poked Manic's nose and continued, "and when I mean perfect I mean flawless. I don't care what gender the sample ends up being so long as they make me some profit gains rather than losses."

Manic left the room in nothing short of a flash. He stopped in his run, thinking of something, and then ran back to place a sweet kiss on Rouge's lips. He broke away, clearing his throat and blushing, and then ran back to where he was going to go.

_I don't know why I put up with him_, Rouge thought. _ I hope his specimen turns out okay. I don't want to have to fire him because someone knows dead and lovin' it over here._

Rouge began to worry about this and called, "Manic, wait! I'm gonna have to watch your process. There's no telling what you'll do to the specimen. It's only a couple of bones and skin cells in this armor thing anyway."

"You know you love my taste in aesthetics when it comes to this. Admit it, boss."

"Ugh, fine, you know how to make hot sexdroids!" Rouge admitted, flying after Manic. It had been awhile since she actually flewn anywhere.

"I like this submissive side to you. It's kind of sexy," Manic said, winking at his boss. He turned a sharp corner and then typed in a passcode to enter his own reconstruction room.

* * *

Rouge hadn't been in the reconstruction room in months. It was almost refreshing to see the gold foil along the walls. Cellular reconstruction was a gentle and strenuous process. If the tools didn't conform to the right tolerance, lawsuits weren't the only thing she'd have to deal with. Manic rushed over to the main computer, which controlled all the delicate equipment needed for his job, and connected his portable scanner to the monitor by simply touching the monitor's small laser light reader pad. Virtual hardware became mechanical hardware and all the information could be read properly.

The reconstruction machine itself was about nine feet long to accomodate for any size of creature or robot or subspecies. It was in the form of a coffin made of glass with a flatbed that could adjust to any being's spinal structure and a layer of vector fields that the machinery can effectively operate on like surgeons so to speak. Manic was busy transporting the deadman's hand to the reconstructor pod while Rouge engaged in memories of creating her very first arm surgery on an alien. The race was quite thankful for her discoveries and healing processes. They come to her often as regular clients. It was such a nostalgic feeling, the way her memories replayed like that. It was also painful. That first job may have earned permanent clients, but it also caused her to lose the man she loved. Before she knew it, she was divorced.

"Over here, boss," Manic said, waving a hand to beckon the bat. Rouge landed delicately on her heeled feet and walked over to the computer with her arms folded. Manic then continued to explain as diagrams and blueprints separated in a readable manner, "Okay, Ms. Rouge, I wanna show you something here. This is a normal human DNA chain. Below it, an anthroman DNA chain, okay? That means you, me, anybody like us, right? Watch this. The compositional elements of his DNA is the same as ours, but there's simply more of them tightly packed with infinite genetic knowledge almost like this being was... I don't know, engineered."

"Is there any danger to that?" Rouge questioned, raising a brow.

"No, no, no, no, no, no, no," Manic whispered, smiling confidently. "When I connected my scanner to the computer, I put it through the cellular hygiene detector. That's why all the diagrams and blueprints are in a certain order now as opposed to earlier when my scanner imploded from the override. The cell is - for lack of a better word - perfect."

"Okay," Rouge nodded after some thought. She took out her ID in the form of a small dogtag with a barcode written across it and pushed it into a personnel USB port. She guided her hand across a panel and pressed it down onto a red button, waiting for Manic to tell her when to activate the machine before them. She then said, "Go ahead, but Mr. Perfect better be polite; otherwise, I'm turning him into cat food."

"Any requests for what his function should be? He is, after all, being reconstructed for a purpose," Manic reminded, teasing Rouge.

"The brain chip?" Rouge asked, not getting the joke. She thought over it and said, "Our pleasure models have had very little success since it's starting. Let's hope this one can turn that situation around."

"Activate it," Manic cued, hearing Rouge press the button.

The deadman's hand lifted a few inches off the flatbed and into the vector fields for proper elevation as the first process started. Rouge hadn't noticed this before, but the hand had two spikes on either side of its four knuckles. Why hadn't she seen it before was a mystery. For all she knew, Mr. Perfect could've been a mafia leader at some point in his career and was delivering weed before someone got the drop on him. Two long machine arms bended towards the vector field. Calcium, phosphorous, and magnesium deposits surrounded by liquidated collagen transfused through the arms to create a form of bone tissue with a yellow to off-white coloring in the molds for a skeleton. The fingers of the arms positioned themselves at the last bit of bone protruding from the peculiar glove. From there, Rouge and Manic simply watched as the arms worked to create a skeletal system for the deadman. Manic was very focused on the monitors showing the reconstruction process as he had to approve of certain adjustments and protocols. When the skeleton was complete, he noticed the appearance of a long, jagged tailbone. The computer then produced a listing of possible creatures the few living cells matched with, among them being an echidna.

Manic hummed in thought at the possibility and said, "Tissue processing."

The skeleton hardened within moments before the reddish-brown, liquorice-like strings connected to the tissue connector. The connector was a tube held in place by two handles and connected to a smaller tube that held the large chunk of pink and reddish-brown flesh. It's unknown whether the actual flesh matches with the deadman's leftover bits, but Manic and Rouge soon noticed the deadman take an unusual anthroman's form. The possibility of this man being an echidna grew at an alarming rate for Manic. It seemed to him that Rouge was only concerned with the flesh forming an outward reproductive organ. That was natural.

"Ten seconds to ultraviolet protection," Manic warned, watching a shield cover the glass. "This is the last phase. The cells are bombarded with greasy solar atoms, causing the body to react and protect itself. That means growing skin."

"Wonderful," Rouge commented, not wanting to know what all that meant. The deadman was becoming a live man, right?

"Reconstruction complete," Manic signaled, seeing only the diagram of what appears to be the rare species of an echidna.

"Remove the shield," Rouge told him.

The shield moved backwards and revealed what Rouge thought was the most beautiful creature she had ever seen besides her first love. The creature's hair and fur was a brilliant red color and its muzzle was a preciously sweetened cream color. His hair was long and in dreadlocks, giving him a very exotic sort of look. His nose was especially shorter but cute on his face.

"I told you. Perfect," Manic commented, smiling widely.

He walked over to a control panel and started thinking about clothes for the red echidna simply lying on the flatbed. It would be a moment before the echidna's breathing began functioning. Pins and needles filled with blood and other fluids were being transfused into the body, so the systems could begin working on their new host. By Mr. Perfect being a vibrant red color, Manic thought of islander clothing for him and turned to the colors of the Jamaican flag or the colors most celebrated in Mayan culture. His legs were also extremely long and lithe like his arms. Something to keep him warm would help him out.

Deciding on a color palette, Manic commanded, " Thermal bandages and skinwear."

"I'd, uh..." Rouge started, not knowing how to put her keen interest in the echidna. He truly was a perfect specimen. She continued, "Like to take a few pictures...for the archives."

Manic chuckled at her, earning some blushing in his favor. Yellow, green, and black belts moved in a seemingly parabolic motion as they covered the resting echidna. Monitors beeped as certain functions in the red creature's body began to function accordingly. His heart was pumping blood properly, lungs were expelling carbon dioxide and sucking in oxygen, his brain was playing images found in dreams, and his eyes were currently in the REM state. As the thermal bandages formed clothes for the echidna, the body was finding its equilibrium point in body temperature. This rapid alteration between extreme heat and sudden coldness began to stir the echidna awake. When he felt warmth, his eyes were beginning to open.

Manic activated the camera per Rouge's instructions, and that sudden burst of light triggered an intense disturbance to the echidna's body, causing him to feel fear, utter pain and shock. Immediately following the snapshot, the echidna's throat worked to let out a yelp but could only produce gurgling screams. His back arched as pain went from his eyes to his brain and down his spine. When he tried to relax his body after feeling the pain subside to his feet, his vision was blurred and all the machines surrounding him appeared as demonic things to him. The atmosphere terrified him and made him arch more to feel for his surroundings. He banged against the walls of his glass prison in a full crab position, forcing his throat to work out the yelps of fear from his savage screaming. When his body came crashing down onto the flatbed, he turned and noticed his vision grow stronger. His breath came in sharp pants. He struggled to get out of the prison, banging his head and upper back against the walls when he saw his own horrified reflection. A noise suddenly gained his interest and he saw the camera disappear into the distance. Reaching out slowly, he groped the air then banged against the top of the glass wall to figure out how the camera managed to escape. When he saw no way of truly getting out, he got in a crouching position and searched through the glass. His vision was getting stronger and stronger until he finally made out two anthromen like himself staring at him. He let his throat work as he gulped in a desperate breath before banging at the wall separating him from the people looking at him.

"Frana ys E? Fro tu oui ryja sa mulgat yfyo mega drec? E ryja y secceuh du lusbmada! E ryja du veht y bneacd. Ec ra rana?"

"Wordy little bastard, isn't he? What's he saying?" Rouge asked, furrowing her eyebrows. There were a lot of languages she could recognize in an instant, but the language the echidna was speaking was not one of them.

"Hell if I know. Activate the phonic detector," Manic ordered, watching the sound waves vary in size and wavelength as they came from the chatty echidna while he continued speaking. None of the English alphabet were getting what he was saying.

Rouge chuckled at the echidna as he continued desperately to speak. She wanted to assume that his phonetics were off, but he already looked like an islander. He was probably just talking in his native language. She asked Manic, "Is, uh..., is that thing solid?"

"Unbreakable," Manic commented, staring at the echidna's face full of expression and how his hair perfectly flowed and moved with him.

"Good," Rouge responded, taking out her ID tag and walking to the echidna.

"Mad sa uid!" the echidna lastly said, seeing Rouge come towards him.

He watched her with alert eyes while she watched him with amused ones. His attention then went to her gloved finger as she tapped the glass to get him to look at her. She held up her ID tag and watched as the echidna raised his head to look into her eyes. When they locked, Rouge almost lost her train of thought. The echidna's eyes were a gorgeous shade of violet, almost jewel-like, and Rouge loved violets just as much as she loved jewels. She cleared her throat when the echidna's eyes began to soften then narrow and smiled at him in the same amused expression as earlier.

"If you want out," Rouge said, holding up her ID tag, "you're going to have to learn to develop those communication skills."

The echidna nodded, feigning he understood what was said, and then shifted his eyes from the prized key to his freedom and the white-furred woman before him. He spread his feet in an odd crouching position and glided his hands down the glass walls. Rouge watched with curiosity as the creature lowered his head and eyed her almost predatorily. She, for a brief moment, thought she was about to be treated to a striptease. How wrong will she ever be! Once she caught the echidna's upper lip curl to show his fangs as he growled, her world suddenly black in an instant once the creature pulled his arm back to punch through the glass and knock the wind out of her body.

"Rouge!" Manic screamed. "General alert!"

Manic sounded dozens of alarms before hopping over the control panel to get to his girlfriend. He was going to kill that son of a bitch! The echidna managed to snatch the ID tag away from Rouge as she fell to the floor. He hurriedly placed the tag into the only slot that looked small enough for the ID to fit in, and climbed down from the flatbed as the glass prison released him. Different types of men were entering the room with long punishment sticks as he switched his vision from one person to the next. They wore greenish one-piece suits and bonnets on their colorful shoes hidden beneath them. When he saw Manic lift Rouge to her feet, he rose a bit to stare into the eyes of his reanimators. Manic and Rouge looked back at him, confused with the way he gazed at them. He looked as if he wanted to say something as he opened his mouth to speak, but his eyes narrowed a bit as one of the human men in green came towards. His lip began to curl up to growl again. Then, abruptly, he dashed towards the gold foil wall behind and jumped through it while spinning rapidly to burst through the bricks behind the foil.

"Perfect..." Rouge commented, earning an incredulous look from Manic.

* * *

Manic tried to get Rouge to drink some tea to relax her mind after being knocked out by the ungrateful echidna savage, but she was far too excited and shivered with anticipation as she waited for news of her new pleasure model being captured. He was certainly a gorgeous creature worthy of many anthromen clients. If luck was on her side, she might even draw the attention of human or alien clients. He was the starting point of perfection at its finest, and he was also worth a fortune due to the reconstruction of an entire body that would otherwise be presumed dead. Manic didn't care about the red-furred beast, however. If trading government property was going to be this bad, he learned his lesson and vowed never to take any property from anywhere. He was pissed as a hedgehog could get and that wasn't a good thing. Luckily, however, the police were now on the case of the missing echidna.

Down a corridor of Rouge's Recon, several human and anthromen police officials were walking toward the mid-section of the hallway. The yellow lights, signaling refugee alerts, were blinding and the alarms could tear out your ears the way they screeched. The leader of the group remained professional throughout all this while his anthromen colleagues were hissing at the noises. They had better senses than their human counterparts.

"Ladder on 18," the captain of the group called, summoning a ladder from the ceiling. He turned to his men and said, "You guys are with me. The rest will travel through ventilation."

"Okay, sir," a lemur said, leading the anthromen.

"This way," the captain told his human partners.

The echidna was fairly agile and limber as he passed through the ventilation ducts. He sniffed his surroundings for fresher air or the simple scents of fine greenery but hardly caught on to anything. He went down a duct and was stopped by the steel casings several feet away from the fans. Swiftly, he punched the casing out then peeped his head out to see if there were any more men with punishment sticks. Seeing none, he quickly maneuvered his way down multiple ducts. Taking one last desperate sniff, he caught the scent of air and heard the gentle sounds of a passing wind. Excited but also fearful of the other sounds and smells that filled his nose, the frantic echidna rushed through the tunnels and endless ducts until he found his light of hope. He climbed out of the ducts, finally, and was frightened by the different horseless chariots that zipped passed him.

His hair was blown back against the walls as he stood shocked by the many chariots that flew on air and zoomed to different points on their horizons. The vast difference between his remote, quiet world and this chaotic one brought the poor boy to tears. He had never seen anything this savage in his own lifetime on Maysis Isle. He had even gone to another planet and didn't see anything resembling these monstrous things. His knees began to shake and buckle from the overwhelming atmosphere.

"Okay, sir, stay calm," the echidna heard from behind him. He stooped down inside the tunnel again to see three human police officers pointing some form of weapon at him. He frowned at this injustice and continued to listen to the leader of the pack. The officer said, "This is the police. There's nowhere else to go. You're gonna slowly turn around and put your hands on the floor. Do you understand me...?"

Outraged, the echidna left and carefully scaled the building out of his own interest. He clearly didn't hear the officer say after an aggravated sigh, "He doesn't." Turning a corner, the echidna walked along the edge of the building and simply gazed at his surroundings to identify something of simplistic value that he could possibly identify with. Finding nothing but wanting to continue his search, he was startled out of his thoughts when a booming horn approached from seemingly out of nowhere towards him. His eyes widened in fear as a long horseless chariot raced down the side of the building. He looked down to follow the noisy thing then back up into the sky. This place had more than flying, horseless chariots. It had longer, horseless chariots that fell from the sky! Amazed by this, he didn't pay attention to the cars approaching him until alarms sounded and got his immediate attention. Beaming lights blared into his face and he was forced to squinch them closed and hold up his hands to block the light or at least balance himself.

"This is the police. This is the police," a penguin said through a receiver. He was seated next to the lemur from earlier with the human officers. They left to retrieve flying units in record timing to find the echidna refugee. The penguin said, "We are processing your identification. Please put your arms up and follow our instructions."

The lemur watched the echidna attentively, making sure his partner could get a read on his facial features. By being the driver of the flying unit, he had to make sure the hovercar was very steady as the scanner on the car traced the red creature's background information.

When the penguin could get no real results, he murmured, "He has no file."

The echidna didn't want to go back to the lab where the green hedgehog and white bat were. He took desperate gulps of the air swishing through his hair and looked up and down his surroundings to find another escape. With no other option, the echidna whispered a single prayer from his trembling lips and closed his eyes as he did so. As if an angel had come down to push him, the echidna leapt from the edge of the building he stood on and heard a small voice fill his spirit and his ears.

_**'I am with you...'**_

"He dove off!" the lemur exclaimed, driving downwards to chase the echidna's body. He had hoped he could make it in time to catch him.

The echidna was falling at an alarming rate, somehow managing to dodge several hovercars from ramming into his body and crushing his bones. All he felt was the wind passing around his body and his own heartbeat calmly pulsing through his veins. It felt as if he had been falling for a long time. Suddenly, hands touched his arms and legs and slowed his falling down. He heard whispering in his spirit and a voice complaining about the events that occured in his day. That deep voice grew louder and louder. He was confused by this, but he dare not question what he was hearing. When the voice stopped talking and the hands that carried him let him go, he opened his eyes to see the top of a yellow hovercar get closer fast. He squeezed his eyes closed hurriedly then braced himself for the harsh landing that was about to ensue. Then...BOOM!

Shadow was simply watching the road and minding his own business when out of nowhere the hood of his cab exploded. He yelped a bit in surprise and covered himself before realizing he was still driving. Shadow rushed to put his hands back on his steering wheel then veered in several directions to dodge oncoming traffic.

"Sorry!" he yelled out, nearly ramming into a minivan.

_**"You just had an accident,"** _the robotic voice told him.

"Yes, I know I just had an accident, ya zappy battery!" Shadow replied, fighting not to rip out the controls containing the voice that spoke to him. He knew what the voice was going to say next and simply drove straight as he heard it, "You've got one more point left on your license and - LOOK OUT!" Shadow screamed, honking his horn. He sharply turned to a nearby corner of building's shoulder and cried out, "Oh no, man!"

The dark hedgehog chuckled to himself, finding karma to be a bitch. He turned on the autopilot for the cab then sighed deeply. Now what? He was barely making ends meet as it was with this job. Now, he was at risk from being fired for collateral damage. On top of that, his license was going to be suspended until renewal if he screwed up on the road again.

The red echidna was barely conscious when he crashed into the hovercab. Whoever was controlling the damn thing was certainly good at making him feel welcome. Tossing and turning in this contraption was not ideal.

Wanting to just punch something, Shadow vented, "Ugh, son of a bitch, I can't believe this!" He took off his seatbelt then turned to look behind him to see his hood inverted downwards. He ruled out any explosions and instead concluded that someone fell through the hood. Not wanting to get rid of a dead body, Shadow asked calmly, "Any survivors?"

The echidna reached his hand up to the nearest stable thing on the hovercar until he heard the deep voice from before when he was simply being carried by wind spirits. He rubbed his head as it pulsed from a sharp pain then cringed as he forced his body up and off the hovercab's floor. When his hand finally reached the glass wall, he shot his head up in fear that he left one glass prison and landed in another one. As he lifted his head to peek through the glass, he gasped to see a dark hedgehog with streaks of red in his hair and along the lids of his eyes. For a moment, their eyes locked in surprise. The echidna's heart suddenly began to pace at a strange rate as he gazed into the other anthroman's red eyes. He was beautiful! Shadow was also speechless from the strange red creature's violet-colored eyes. They weren't blue, and they weren't purple, but they were a healthy mix of both. He was also fascinated with the bright, bold colors he adorned. Red, yellow, green, and black represented some sort of nation, right? Maybe the creature was of Jamaican descent.

Not a man of many words, Shadow started to speak with a light smirk, "Hi... You okay?"


End file.
